1) Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for health monitoring of unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs), and more particularly, to systems and methods for acoustic signature health monitoring of unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs), such as unmanned air vehicles.
2) Description of Related Art
Air vehicle health monitoring systems and methods are commonly used to detect faults and to assess the operational health of various systems and structures of air vehicles, for example, air vehicles such as commercial aircraft, military aircraft, rotorcraft, and other air vehicles. Such health monitoring systems and methods may use sensors to continuously monitor various sensory signals, such as acoustic, vibration, force, and temperature signals, and to generate data that may be used to warn of any possible problems so that preventive maintenance action may be taken.
Known health monitoring sensor systems installed onboard air vehicles and powered by equipment onboard the air vehicles exist. However, such known onboard health monitoring sensor systems may include additional components and equipment that may add weight to the air vehicles, which, in turn, may result in an increased fuel requirement for a given flight profile. This increased fuel requirement may, in turn, result in increased fuel costs. Moreover, such known onboard health monitoring sensor systems may prove challenging for use with unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs), such as unmanned air vehicles, which may typically be lighter in weight than manned air vehicles and which may have limited onboard space. Further, installing such known health monitoring sensor systems onboard air vehicles may require modifications to the air vehicles. Such modifications to the air vehicles may require additional licenses, certifications, and/or government approvals for any new equipment or components which may be costly and time consuming to obtain.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved system and method for acoustic signature health monitoring of UAVs that provide advantages over known systems and methods for health monitoring of air vehicles.